Whatcha Gonna Do About It?
Whatcha Gonna Do About It?
With poker players voicing concerns about bot rings and the use of RTA tools, online poker sites are trying to regain the trust of the community. But will they succeed?
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: Online poker operators are becoming increasingly transparent about their game integrity protocols. But is transparency enough?
NEWS: Eilers & Krejcik Gaming has two ESPN Bet questions: Is it growing the US market or poaching current bettors? Should it have waited to launch?
NEWS: Betr exits Massachusetts but announces market access deals in three new states, including for online casino in PA.
QUICK HITTER: Underdog Fantasy partners with Sedgefield Country Club for sports betting access in North Carolina.
VIEWS: The AGA is putting sweepstakes casinos on its “illegal gambling” list after praising Michigan’s regulatory action.
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER: Two topics are dominating social media: the latest on the Iowa/Iowa St. sports betting scandal and ESPN Bet’s Ravens line.
STRAY THOUGHTS: The wisdom of Miyamoto Musashi.
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Online Poker Operators Explain Security Protocols
Following community uproar about security breaches, several online poker operators have decided to take the initiative and better explain how they safeguard their online poker tables.
America’s Cardroom, the subject of much of the poker community’s ire, is one of the sites issuing statements. However, some in the poker community have called ACR’s statement “lip service” despite its improvement over the site’s initial response.
What ACR Has to Say
America’s Cardroom (part of the Winning Poker Network) wrote the following on January 17, 2024:
“Players have recently expressed concern over a group of accounts playing over the course of the past 12 months. These accounts have all been through a rigorous set of security protocols through the natural course of business. These protocols were performed in real-time prior to the list being made public earlier this month. Given the serious nature of the accusations against these specific accounts, we have undergone additional review.”
The post goes on to say that ACR already prohibited some of the accounts. Others had passed the company’s security screening, but “Given the continued concerns expressed by members of our player community, out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to suspend each of these accounts and put those accounts through additional scrutiny before they are permitted to continue play.”
The post goes on to list the current protocols and how ACR is undergoing a full review of the current protocols with the expectation it will make changes to increase security further.
What 888 Has to Say
888 has also disclosed its efforts to thwart RTA and bots, telling PokerFuse it “took decisive action by blocking 161 accounts… utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) or real-time assistance (RTA) during online poker tables” throughout 2023.
“Our continued progress in tackling bots stems from the understanding that it is crucial in order to ensure that 888poker continues to provide an enjoyable, safe, and level playing field for all our players,” Matan Krakow, Head of Poker Offering at 888poker told PokerFuse.
What PokerStars Has to Say
In an October 2023 blog post, PokerStars Head of Game Integrity Francis Lincoln explained the steps it is taking to counter the rise of RTA (real-time assistance) and bots.
According to Lincoln, the company looks at “a wealth of data gathered from numerous sources.” Lincoln stopped short of detailing PokerStars’ capabilities and detection methods, but as PokerFuse summarized, the company uses “real-time monitoring of player decisions and actions, such as mouse clicks at the tables, which previously led to the detection of so-called “fully-automated bots.”
Players can also ping PokerStars if they see any suspicious behavior, but PokerStars claims that more than 95% of the accounts closed in the previous year were detected in-house.
What I have to Say
The looming question is, are any of these measures enough?
Software and bots are becoming more sophisticated and less expensive, and trust in online poker is at an all-time low. As I recently wrote, “The game that brought me into this crazy gambling universe in the late 1990s is going through an existential crisis.”
EKG Has Questions for ESPN Bet
In a recent note, the Eilers & Krejcik Gaming team outlined five key themes it is watching in 2024 and five key questions it would like to ask management teams.
An entry from each of the two categories focused, at least in part, on ESPN Bet.
In the themes category, the EKG team said it remains “cautious on the view that ESPN Bet and others are growing the market and wonder whether any uptick observed to date is mostly the result of aggressive sign-up bonusing.”
This is the big question. Is ESPN Bet (and Fanatics and Bet365, for that matter) merely borrowing customers from DraftKings, FanDuel, and the other existing operators during a promotional blitz, or are they luring them away?
Any new customers ESPN Bet is bringing into the ecosystem should have more brand loyalty, but there is a caveat, as many of those customers may not stick around after the bonus dollars disappear and simply slip back into the hedges a la Homer Simpson.
The second mention of ESPN Bet occurred in the questions section, with EKG wondering if ESPN Bet erred when it launched a product ranked 7th in EKG’s proprietary app testing. EKG singled out ESPN Bet’s “below-top-tier SGP tool and a limited feature set” and wondered how that might “impact retention and long-term performance.”
As the EKG team said, “You only get one chance at a first impression.”
ESPN Bet is expected to upgrade its SGP and product sometime in H2, so there was a decision to be made for Penn-ESPN: launch as-is or wait. It chose the former.
Betr Recalibrates its US Approach… Again
Betr’s short time in the US online gambling space has already produced several strategies.
First, it was going to disrupt the sports betting space with a focus on micro-betting. Betr then added a Pick ‘Em style DFS game called Betr Picks, now available in 20 states. And now the pendulum is swinging back to sports betting, with a side of online casino.
In a press release, the company announced three new sports betting market access deals in Colorado, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania - Betr will also have online casino market access in Pennsylvania through a partnership with Cordish Gaming Group.
Betr’s sports betting app has already launched in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia and has market access in Maryland and Indiana.
Betr Founder and CEO Joey Levy said, “The new states we have acquired market access in will offer Betr Sportsbook the opportunity to reach over 17% of the US adult population by the end of this year, while Betr Picks will continue to be available to over 50% of the US adult population.”
The press release also had some contraction news.
The company will not renew its temporary license in Massachusetts, saying because of the cost of doing business in Massachusetts, the company would trade “a 7 million population state for over 23 million in the net new states for collectively less economics than it would have required to renew in Massachusetts alone.”
Massachusetts hasn’t been kind to Betr, where the company’s market share of .07% in December 2023. Ohio is even less hospitable, as Betr’s market share is .06% - Virginia doesn’t report individual operator handle and revenue.
Quick Hitter: Underdog Reveals NC Sports Betting Partner
Underdog Fantasy (a newsletter sponsor) has partnered with Sedgefield Country Club in North Carolina. All mobile sports betting applicants in North Carolina must partner with a professional sports team or specified venue in order to be eligible for a license.
Underdog was the surprise mobile sports betting entrant when North Carolina revealed the first batch of license applications. The company has signaled its intent to shift into the sports betting space, and North Carolina is set to be its launchpad.
Here is the complete list of applicants and their partners:
Bet365 has partnered with the Charlotte Hornets.
BetMGM has partnered with Charlotte Motor Speedway.
DraftKings has partnered with NASCAR.
ESPN Bet has partnered with Quail Hollow Club (a PGA tour venue).
Fanatics has partnered with the Carolina Hurricanes.
FanDuel has partnered with the PGA Tour.
Underdog has partnered with Sedgefield Country Club (a PGA tour venue).
TODAY’S CALENDAR: NC Mobile Betting Launch Update
The universal launch date is expected to be announced during a hearing today at 10 AM. WRAL reporter Brian Murphy should be all over this on X for anyone interested in following along.
AGA Praises Crackdown on Sweepstakes Casinos
The American Gaming Association (AGA) has made shutting down illegal gambling a top priority. While its focus has been on offshore online gambling sites and so-called skill games, AGA President and CEO Bill Miller recently praised the Michigan Gaming Control Board for cracking down on sweepstakes casinos in the state.
“States do have the power to fight back against illegal online gambling sites—and the Michigan Gaming Control Board is proving it,” Miller said on LinkedIn. “More states must follow their lead if we want to protect consumers across the country. Hats off to the MGCB on their continued leadership!”
The illegal online gambling Miller is referencing is sweepstakes casinos.
Michigan began sending cease & desist letters in 2023 before ramping up its enforcement in September. The crackdown led to the withdrawal from Michigan by Golden Hearts Games and Virtual Gaming Worlds (Chumba Casino).
In a recent press release, the MGCB claims PredictionStrike, Stake.us, and the aforementioned VGW are in violation of several Michigan gaming laws. The release also says the three companies have “taken steps to prevent Michigan residents from gambling on their websites.”
The situation in Michigan is likely just the beginning. As I said in my “Stories to Watch” article on January 1, 2024:
“Sweepstakes are one of the more complex areas of gambling. The strange legal area it resides in has created a loophole of sorts, and some states, like Michigan, are looking at closing that loophole. Expect more of this in the coming years.”
I’ll have more on this topic soon.
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
Two topics have overrun social media.
The first is new evidence that points to the investigation into student-athlete sports betting at Iowa, and Iowa St. may have been a warrantless investigation.
“Brian Sanger, special agent for Iowa's Division of Criminal Investigation, obtained access to a software tool called Kibana that allowed him to view the use of online betting applications in certain facilities through a "GeoFence." Sanger allegedly first used the software to assess underage gambling at a freshman/sophomore dormitory at the University of Iowa, but eventually was told he could not pursue the inquiry.”
Only after Sanger allegedly used the same software to place a GeoFence around an Iowa athletic facility, restricted to athletes, coaches and staff, did he receive "the green light to continue the investigation," the motion states.
Local reporter Keith Murphy’s tweet has more than 150 comments and 500 retweets.
The other hot topic is what the hell happened with ESPN Bet’s Ravens-Texans line. X users have left no stone unturned trying to figure out how/why the line was offered.
You can read the Sports Handle article here, and ESPN’s David Purdum wrote an excellent piece on it that you can read here.
On social, Adam Levitan came up with three plausible ideas:
Stray Thoughts
“It may seem difficult at first, but everything is difficult at first.” ~ Miyamoto Musashi
This is another really good quote I find myself using repeatedly. As I wrote a few weeks back in the Stray Thoughts section, “Difficulty is often frontloaded whenever you try to learn/start something new. If you can get past the initial growing pains, things tend to get easier.”
For those who don’t know, Musashi is a legendary swordsman who wrote The Book of Five Rings, where he imparts a lot of wisdom along with his debatable moral code that often strays into psychopathic territory.